Eminent Domain On the Table Along With Draft Downtown Plan

Downtown Northbrook has sometimes been deplored for its retail vacancies, dearth of parking and lack of a unified identity. 

But the members of a steering committee who helped craft a new, 116-page plan for the central business district hope to change all that—provided the economy, local businesses and developers cooperate.  

“I was approached many times by people asking, ‘When are we going to get this done?’” said 14-year Northbrook resident and committee member Carolyn Ferber. “I think there is a sense that this is a to-do list, not a wish list.”

After a roughly six month-long planning process that included , and meetings with residents, business owners, property owners, developers and village staff, consultant Teska Associates Inc. presented the steering committee with a draft development plan at a meeting on Tuesday. Money for the plan came from a designed to improve development around the Metra station.

At Tuesday’s meeting, steering committee members unanimously voted to recommend the draft plan for village board approval. Available online and at the reference desk of the , the plan sketches a vision for healthy retail, residential and commercial development in the shopping centers along Cherry Lane, Shermer Road, Church Street and Meadow Road.

The plan also calls for strategically placed parking that supports local businesses, the establishment of a cohesive look through “streetscaping” with plants and signs, and revised zoning codes to pave the way for more development. 

“A lot of what we’re doing here is figuring out how the village can get out of the way of developers,” said trustee James Karagianis, who chairs the steering committee.

Meadow Road Shopping Center Is Biggest Concern

Meadow Plaza, the shopping center on Meadow Road, was the area that during the planning process. Teska proposed two different options for the shopping center: a “modest rehab” and a total rehaul and redevelopment. 

With a price tag of $2.6 million, the simpler proposal involves renovating the west wing to allow some shops to face Meadow Road, adding diagonal parking on Meadow Road and planting more trees in the parking lot on Cherry Lane. Assuming the property owner shouldered the cost of the renovation, tenants would have to fork over 5 to 8 percent more in rent to make the investment worthwhile, according to Scott Goldstein, principal with Teska. Alternatively, the village could kick in funding in the form of façade improvement matching grants, riverfront plantings and parking improvements. 

The second concept for Meadow Plaza would raze every building except for . The shops along the river to the south would be replaced with a five-story residential building with retail on the ground level, while the shops to the west would be replaced with a commercial structure that faced Meadow Road. Costs to complete this plan could run close to $50 million, according to Goldstein. 

Beyond its inconvenient orientation with stores facing away from the street, the biggest hurdle to redeveloping Meadow Plaza could be vacant properties like the former Walgreens, steering committee members said. While the drugstore moved out more than a year ago, it has paid its lease through 2024—meaning owner Jay Heitman of Heitman Properties does not have an economic incentive to fill the space.

Steering committee members Carolyn Ferber and Amy Kurson both wondered whether the village had any power to kick start development of vacant properties such as the former Walgreens store. Ferber suggested that the village should investigate any roadblocks to eminent domain, while Kurson asked whether the village could revise zoning code for an area to make certain property owners so uncomfortable that they would want to sell.

“What I’m asking for is a layout from legal and planning if you want to wallop a recalcitrant landowner over the head,” she said.

Legally, village attorney Stewart Weiss said a zoning code that attempted to force a property owner to sell could be challenged in court as unreasonable. Currently, he added, any attempt to exercise eminent domain would likely require that the property be classified as a tax increment financing district (TIF). Downtown Northbrook, however, is classified as a business district with a stipulation prohibiting condemnation.

Jay Heitman told Patch that he was working on filling the Walgreens property, although he declined to discuss any specific tenants.  

“These are unusual times, right, so it’s very difficult and I’m trying to figure out how we put everything together,” Heitman said. “It’s up in the air right now.” 

Source of Money Has Yet to Be Determined 

When it came to implementing the plan, many steering committee members saw money as the biggest object—whether it came from taxpayers through village incentives or from developers who saw the potential for profit. 

“The reality of the situation is, they can’t do anything until the banks loan money,” said Karagianis. “We couldn’t have picked a worse time [to do this] other than the Great Depression.” 

Several of the property developers and business owners on the panel said they were concerned about what unintended consequences raising the rents could have on businesses, particularly small ones.

“For a startup, five percent would probably be as high as they could go,” said Jill Carlisle, owner of the independent gift shop . Selwyn Marcus, owner of the Village Green Center, warned that raising the rents could even lead to bankruptcies—and more vacancies downtown.

Karagianis said the solution should come from the private sector, not from village government financing. 

“Let’s create an opportunity for the right development to occur,” he said. 

In addition to recommending village board approval of the redevelopment plan, the steering committee also suggested that the village board should consider developing a TIF district, remove a ban on condemnation of properties, aggressively market downtown Northbrook to developers and begin with “streetscape” improvements as a first step in implementation.

The village board will consider the plan at its next committee of the whole meeting, Tuesday, Feb. 21, at 7:30 p.m. at .